In order to promote further spread of eco-industrial networks it is essential to build more supportive context that stimulates companies to see these new possibilities and encourages them to start the implementation. This chapter represents the most viable promoting actions based on the empirical study where four main themes emerged quite heavily: building the awareness, active facilitation, incentives and dismantling the legislative barriers. Table 9 shows the importance of these four main promotional activities based on the appearance in the data. kinds of enablers and the key principle could possibly be this kind of knowledge sharing, promoting the flow of information and dismantling the administrative barriers.”
Incentives 11 ”But now the question is if we want to raise this completely into another sphere. And then for my opinion we need new financial instruments that enable the implementation in wider scale than what we as SMEs have possible.”
Active 14 ”The primary mean would be supporting this facilitation and
facilitation possibly building uniform database. I think this would be the very long because money has a bad quality not being able to wait at all.”
Building awareness, as mentioned both in success and challenging factors, seems to be one of the most promising way supporting the development of eco-industrial networks. The networking and industrial symbiosis themselves are not new concepts but have been utilized for ages. However the problem usually lies in the point of view that is restricted too much into own industry and one cannot see the bigger picture. Thus the education about these new possibilities should be spread among wider audience especially for SMEs where the resources are often very limited to do research about these concepts and their possibilities.
28. ”Maybe the first step in this kind of network development process is raising the interest among companies and also spreading the kind of awareness that companies start to think their resource politics and the use of resources more widely; where do we take and what kind of materials, where do they go, how do we link with other companies around us with our streams.” Person O
There are different ways available for building general awareness about the possibilities of industrial symbiosis and green supply chain management. One effective possibility would be bringing these successful cases into awareness. As mentioned in the data, companies need concrete examples of these possibilities and models to realize the possible benefits to be gained and thus justifying to themselves to go for it. To get a wider penetration, a bigger change in ways companies think their operations and processes are in order.
29. ”It might be a bit because of the fact that this industrial symbiosis is quite new concept and companies need those good examples to get confirmation for their believes that this is worthwhile to go through in many companies.” Person N
Another way to increase the awareness and implementation would be piloting of different concepts and trying to find the best practices for these network development processes to be able to replicate these on wider scope. However this brings many challenges because as mentioned in interviews the network development procedure is always case-specific. Thus the outcome cannot be too generalized process that may not fit well into real context or does not bring genuine benefits to the case under development. Thus multiple piloting of different kinds of cases should be in order to find the best practices that suit into the specific industry structure and need.
30. ”We need those pilot parks and I do not think that through tax reductions or such (will work), I think it is the healthy profitability and that you can see the model working and you get your own vision from that.” Person I
Active facilitation was considered as one of the key promoting actions along with building the general awareness of eco-industrial networks. The majority of the interviewees considered the active player of so-called orchestrator as one of the most significant drivers and success factors in the network development process.
The motivated orchestrator drew new companies into the network by building the awareness and trust among the participants. Here also the significance of social networks emerged as an important factor especially at the beginning of the development process. Thus it seems very eligible that establishing some sort of active public facilitator would support the further implementation of eco-industrial networks.
31. ”When we are thinking about what Sitra and the government are now trying to drive here, that could these existent models of industrial symbiosis be utilized and build more of those in Finland, then the answer is this kind of facilitating organization. Not an organization that sells business premises or commodities but also actively builds these symbioses” Person K
Incentives was in turn mentioned as a viable promotional activity in supporting the development of eco-industrial networks. Although there were also a few
controversial statements about interfering free market conditions too much.
Unsuccessful case of subsidies was seen in wind power tariffs where the subsidies are seen as prerequisites in order to business being profitable. Thus in the case of eco-industrial networks, subsidies and other financial aids should not be permanent. There were also mentioned that current electricity subsidies could be transferred more into resource efficiency with less focus to the energy source thus being more technology neutral.
32. ”It is a bit like that wind power tariff. It is hard to compete without the support but these kinds of supporting actions tend to guide operations too much towards certain direction.. ..So there should be some transition period and not the way that now we start to support some operation and there is no end in sight but just to the point that companies get on their feet.” Person O
It was mentioned several times that every development project should be at first hand based on a profitable business plan that has a real potential to succeed thus enabling efficient use of public funds. As mentioned earlier, companies face huge economic challenges in the early phases of the development project, especially in the case of new company. It can be difficult to acquire the needed capital before comprehensive preliminary studies and permitting processes. To help companies to take this first step and lower the threshold, some new financial mechanisms should be formed that focus especially on these early phases of the development process. In addition, normal investment support was mentioned although added that there already are some forms of investment support available. Especially company representative brought up that the state should take a bigger role in financing new businesses where banks are being seen as very careful to grant loans these.
33. ”But now the question is if we want to raise this completely into another sphere.
And then for my opinion we need new financial instruments that enable the implementation in wider scale than what we as SMEs have possible. And I think that large companies will not build these new industrial symbioses.” Person K
34. “Should there be some sort of planning support for these kinds of promising businesses so it would not necessary be for investments but if seen as interesting enough the company could get planning money for it” Person G
Different kinds of European Union financial mechanisms were also mentioned as one source of capital to fund public promotional activities and building up “the big picture”. Thus building the awareness about the possibilities and obstacles is important also in the EU level as well
35. ”Now there are coming significant financial inputs from European Union also for resource efficiency through different financial channels LIFE+, Horizon, and in Finland EAKR financing regionally.” Person C
Dismantling the legislative barriers emerged as the fourth promotional activity in supporting the development of eco-industrial networks in Finland. Legislation was seen in two different ways, as a challenging factor but also as a driver. For innovative companies that are ahead of development, it was seen sometimes as a huge bureaucratic barrier which hindered their implementation actions. On the other way, legislation can boost the implementation of new operating models among the big audience and the laggards that are not motivated to change their operations proactively. It can also support new innovations by pressuring companies to make changes in their processes, for example by raising the landfill fees in order to decrease the amount of waste produced. These cost sanctions force companies to think alternative ways to streamline their operations thus sometimes generating radical innovations that will become as new standards inside industries. In addition, it can also create new businesses when new innovations and technologies emerge or one finds a possibility for additional services.
As a side of guiding actions it is extremely essential to bring down some of the barriers in legislation that companies faces in order to create a more supportive context for developing eco-industrial networks. The primary action would be bringing these barriers into the light so that government could identify these more efficiently. The government would have the responsibility to make these
necessary changes but also become more adaptive for the changes in the social environment. It was mentioned that legislation often lack behind thus slowing down innovative companies.
36. ”Pressuring. By that I mean this kind of lobbying by opening cases that show how these permitting processes hinder or slow down the business. So in a way collecting this kind of argumentation bank for it and then use it in order to fasten changes.. ..So in a way, till to today the regulation has always done by the one standard and then there are these industrial symbioses that in a sense go across those industries and problems occur” Person D
The biggest obstacles in legislation were seen in permitting procedures. Usually these took very long time but it were also significantly dependent on the location and what ELY centre they where applying from. It was said that the general permitting procedure should be unified and speed up to build more supporting context for companies, especially for startups and SMEs who have usually very limited resources. I was also said that this issue has been notified and under work as being a part of national efficiency programme.
37. ”That permitting issue has been tried to ease little by little but still there are quite a lot of problems thus one development activity in this national material efficiency programme is simplifying this permitting procedure.” Person A
Summarizing the chapter. The main promoting actions found in the study were building awareness, using incentives, active facilitation and dismantling the legislative barriers. As mentioned, the general awareness was pointed out also as a success and challenging factor thus is selected for an essential promoting action.
Another big challenge emerged was limited resources in companies thus forming of new financial instruments for supporting companies would also be one key promoting factors. At the current general financial situation, investments like these are quite difficult to justify in companies, especially in a case if the outcomes and benefits cannot be accurately shown. It was mentioned that especially in the beginning of the development project during preliminary studies
and planning would be essential because usually getting finance before permitting procedure was seen very challenging. Thus these kinds of financial aids for planning phase would lower the threshold for companies to start the implementation of networks and new businesses.
Closely related to this issue was seen the third main promotional action, dismantling the legislative barriers. As it was mentioned, overall bureaucracy and especially permitting procedure was seen very significant problem in the eco-industrial network development process. These procedures took usually very long time although there were no complaints occurred during the process.
As the fourth main promotional activity was mentioned active facilitation. Often companies need that active player or orchestrator from outside to show the possibilities available and help in planning the implementation. Thus this kind of a national facilitation programme could be in order as one very concrete promotional activity. The facilitation process and possible framework for national facilitation programme are being presented in the following chapters.
6 FACILITATION OF ECO-INDUSTRIAL NETWORKS IN FINLAND
In this chapter, further investigation about facilitation activities in Finnish context is made and a framework for this process is built. In addition, the main characteristics of nationwide facilitation programme are identified.